Urgent Call for citizen action to rein in EPA

On June 2nd of this year the Obama administration announced new regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with a goal of reducing carbon emissions over the next 15 years. These goals as outlined by the EPA in the Clean Power Plan impose significant restrictions on power plants already in existence, even natural gas plants. Power plants are cited by the EPA as the largest source of carbon pollution in the U.S., accounting for roughly on-third of all domestic greenhouse gas emissions.

The reasons given by the EPA for its new regulations are in keeping with blaming man’s emission of CO2 as the cause for runaway global warming, yet the global temperature has remained flat over the past 17 years. History tells us that natural climate variability has happened over the centuries; i.e. the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than today. In 2009 some prominent alarmists are on record saying that if temperatures remained flat for 15-20 years, the scientific community needs to re-evaluate the theory. Three years later in 2012 a report in the UK Daily Mail revealed the following from a quietly released Met Office report:

The figures reveal that from the beginning of 1997 until August 2012 there was no discernible rise in aggregate global temperatures

This means that the ‘pause’ in global warming has now lasted for about the same time as the previous period when temperatures rose, 1980 to 1996

It’s 2014 and we’re now near the twenty-year time frame to re-evaluate the theory of global warming, but will it be possible to stop the new EPA regulations with the powerful force of government behind them?

According to the EPA, its Power Plan proposal will put Americans to work, make the U.S. electricity system less polluting and our homes and businesses more efficient, and shrink electricity bills by 8% in 2030. If this sound too good to be true, it is! According to an article by Katie Pavlich, “What you need to know about Obama’s new EPA regulations,” the regulations will negatively impact the economy in the following ways:

-New regulations will kill 226,000 American jobs.

-New regulations will cost the U.S. economy $51 billion per year.

-Even with new regulations, carbon is only expected to decrease by 1.8 percent by 2030.

-Despite EPA claims new regulations will reduce the cost of power, electricity rates are expected to go up, as coal-fired plants, the dominant source of cheap power, shut down in response to environmental regulations, further making new coal power plants impossible to build.

Later this year the EPA will decide whether it should tighten the air-quality standard for ground level ozone. In 2008 the EPA set ozone standards for air quality at 75 parts per billion (ppb). Even before states have fully implemented the 2008 standards, the EPA is expected to propose revising it to as low as 60 ppb. A new study for the National Association of Manufacturers by NERA Economic Consulting, finds that “the new ozone standard could cost Americans $170 billion annually, put millions of jobs at risk, and drastically increase energy prices for consumers and manufacturers.”

Thorner first learned about Heartland’s call to action petition to reign in the EPA when receiving it as a handout at the The Ninth International Conference on Climate Change which took place from July 7-9, 2014 in Las Vegas. Some 650 scientists, economists, policy experts, and guests attended the ICCC9 conference, all willing to question whether man-made global warming is a problem worth addressing. The ICCC9 schedule can be viewed here. Videos (and PowerPoint presentations, when available) from every presenter can be seen here.

The nine statements in The Heartland Institute’s petition are capsules of knowledge gained through hard scientific data and observations as documented through published reports by the NIPCC (Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change), which counter the reports put forth by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change). Given the devastating consequences of the proposed EPA regulation, an urgency exists for deep cuts in the size, power and cost of the EPA. Below are the nine petition statement, each of which is proceeded by “Whereas”:

1. For decades an unprecedented campaign has been waged to scare the American people into believing their health, safety and even survival was at stake because of manmade global warming.

2. We were told that CO2, which makes up less than one-half of one-tenth of one percent of our atmosphere, is acting like a blanket, keeping the heat in, and it was going to cause the baking of the Earth.

3. The hard scientific data now show that the predicted rise in global temperatures just plainly did not happen.

4. Sea ice in the Arctic is rebounding and continues to expand in the Antarctic, despite predictions of the opposite, polar bears are thriving, and sea levels are not rising.

5. Deaths due to extreme weather are radically declining and global tropical cyclone activity is at near record lows.

6. It is now clear that the global warming alarmists are wrong and a large majority of Americans now understand it was a hoax. It’s false that man reducing CO2 emissions — especially the U.S. virtually alone — will have any effect on the global temperature.

7. Regulators at the EPA, having lost their war to scare America into giving them legislation that would allow them to seize control of virtually all energy production and use, are perverting the Clean Air law to give themselves unprecedented powers to regulate American society.

8. The toll the EPA is now taking on this country is staggering, putting hundreds of thousands of Americans out of work.

9. The only way a new president or a new Congress will undo the terrible damage being inflicted by the EPA after the election is if we make it a major issue NOW, BEFORE THE ELECTION, so that after the election even those who support the EPA’s reckless regulations will understand it is political suicide to support them.

First revealed at The Ninth International Conference on Climate Change in Las Vegas in July, was a plan by Jay Lehr, Ph.D, science director at The Heartland Institute to replace the EPA. Dr. Lehr’s plan, “Replacing the Environmental Protection Agency,” was posted on July 15 at Heartland as a policy document. Click to read the full text of this document59.97 KB

The E.P.A. says the new rules are needed to clarify which bodies of water it must oversee under the federal Clean Water Act.

The EPA has outlived its usefulness. Don’t delay by downloading and signing The Heartland Institute petition as a citizen concerned about the overreach of the EPA and its proposals which point to economic disaster for this nation.